My Daughters' First Handmade Dolls

I am not particularly crazy about stuffed animals. But, I always wanted to make dolls for my daughters.

I finally decided to get to this project...

Two nights ago, I worked and finished Schnitzel. It is a character from a cartoon called "Chowder" on Cartoon Network. It is no longer on air, but the girls love to watch the episodes online. My youngest favorite character is Schnitzel who only says "Rad-da Rad-da". I rather make something she loves and she can carry around than something really cute from my point of view but she can care less about. I don't know much about the story/characters of the show, so to make Schnitzel, I searched a drawing of the character on internet.

It took me about 2 1/2 hours of cutting fabric (fleece, felt for smaller parts) and sewing, then Schnitzel was born.

Then, it was my oldest daughter's turn.

Last night, I worked on her bunny. This bunny is from a book called "Cute Dolls"; the collections of dolls from fish, tadpole to liar (it is a name of a doll in the book!).

It took me about 2 hours, and the white bunny was born.

Late night work was worth it when I saw the girls happy faces in the following morning!! They carry them around all the time :)

Fridge Magnets

My daughters loves to draw, and I love to see what they draw on my fridge (now that my fridge is not stainless steel!)

But, I did not have many magnets, and the ones I have were advertisement type.

So, I saw the need for magnets and saw the scrap fabric in my closet, and decided I make some magnets myself.

With half ball buttons and round magnets, I made the new fridge magnets!

This was super easy, and I can tell it could be addicting...

Finally Boy Bandana Bibs in Shop!

It took me a while to realize that I sell more boy bandana bibs than girls.

About a week ago, I started working on more boy ones.

Finally, I finished several a couple of nights ago, and they are now in shop.

This time, some new fabric were used including marching elephants

and sushi theme one.

New Granny Bag!!

I just LOVE this Joel Dewberry fabric of butterfly and orchid.

After making two pillows for my couch in light green color fabric, I just finished a granny bag for my shop in dark green.

The Interior is lined with ivory color twill cotton fabric and has a small pocket.

The handles and trims are finished with ivory color polyester tape.

To ensure durability, heavy weight interfacing is used.

And, of course as you see in the photo, magnetic closure is there.

I still have this series of fabric in stock. Cannot wait to make something with them!!

Pot Holder made from scrap fabric

Derailed from the sewing projects I have been working on, I decided to make a pot holder using scrap fabric. I kept most of the scrap fabric that is too small to make a bib or pouch (my usual items in my shop) but to big to throw out.

I have a box full of scrap fabric waiting to be used, when I saw it the other day, I could not resist any more.

I worked on a couple of failed pot holders. I attempted to make pot holders with heart shape and fish shape (after consulting my oldest daughter for particular shapes). But, they did not come out right. For the third one, I decided to go with something easy and for sure it would work so that I don't have to feel the time I spent for the two pot holders did not go wasted.

So, square it is.

Collected green fabric pieces out of the box, patch worked together to make a square for the top side, and found a relatively big piece of twill fabric (which also needed a little bit of extra piece of fabric to make a square) for the back side. Also used twill fabric to make the loop for hanging.

Nice quick project!

Pillows for the couch

Lived here with a new inexpensive couch from IKEA for more than a month now, and had wanted to have a couple of pillows. I bought a couple of pillow inserts and 18 inch zippers at the local craft stores and finally got to work on the projects.

Gorgeous home decor fabric by Joel Dewberry I bought more than a year ago finally had its debut, and since I did not have enough of that fabric to make two 20x20 inch pillows, I used olive color cotton twill fabric for the back side.

Two night project was finished two nights ago, and now the pillows are in use!!

What I like

I usually use retro and unique fabric found in US and Japan.
The ones I find in Japan can be traditional Japanese pattern or cute "kawaii" fabric. I love them both.

I have made from baby bibs to handbags, but always willing to give a try to anything new.

One of my all time favorite fabric is this Goldfish fabric from Japan.



I have made a few zipper pouches using this fabric, but all purchased by people in southern hemisphere (Australia and New Zealand.) Coincidence? Or some goldfish fever was going around in the region? If anyone knows the answer, please let me know.